Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

Motivation

Many people ask me, out of all the places I could have chosen, why did I choose Kazakhstan to go on exchange? Good question indeed, I guess I wanted something exotic, far away, and still get a scholarship. Recommendations from Kestutis, Kristina, Janis and Aliya inspired me as well.

So was it far away? Yes indeed, around 4000km and 4 time zones to the east from Baltics. Enough not to wish to come back during the semester. Did I get a scholarship? Oh yes, 4150 juicy dollars from HESP program were in my account before leaving. Although it took a lot of documents to get them, though. Finally, was it exotic? Yes indeed. Having a shower in the dark for a few weeks, drinking vodka with local „gangsters“ in the middle of the desert in Uzbekistan, visiting mountains just 30 minutes away from home, trying out horse meat, playing American football, having great weather with sun and no wind 99% of the time – definitely exotic.

Country

Firstly, its huge. 16 million people in 2.7 million squared kilometers, or just 5 people per km2. Deserts, mountains, steppes, forests. More fancy cars in Almaty than in Riga, and more Zhiguli’s in some smaller cities than we ever had in the Baltics. Great weather: never any wind, never any rain, just sun and blue sky. Like in their flag.

Travelling

I planned on travelling a lot, but I had three obstacles: very big distances (wanna go to the capital, Astana? Sure, just take a train for 1.5 days), a bit of laziness, and my favorite phrase in Kazakhstan, namely the “F***ing Kazakhstan bureaucracy!”. Having to pay some 10 times more for making a visa in Kazakhstan instead of back in Lithuania is not a very nice thing. Anyway, I still managed to go on the best trip in my life. It was a 10 day trip with Peteris to Uzbekistan, and that trip alone deserves a separate article. Some

next time, maybe. We also had a few hiking trips to the mountains nearby Almaty, visited the 2nd biggest canyon in the world, Charyn, and done some other minor trips.

People

That is what I will remember the most. In the beginning I was afraid of them, since most of them look so different from what we are used to. It’s Asia, after all. But from the very first days I found out that all of them are extremely friendly and helpful. Of course, knowing a bit of Russian language helped a lot, and I am very happy I had such a chance to improve it a lot. And the girls, the girls are so exotic and gorgeous! And none of them are arrogant or anything! I made quite many close friends here in Kazakhstan, and I will miss them the most.

University

Its called KIMEP, or Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research. Its also called the “Harvard of Central Asia”. Over 4000 students in a nice university campus, where all the buildings are in one place, including the dormitory we lived it. Everything is in English, and the faculty is really impressive – plenty of PhDs from all around the world. But the students are almost 99% from Kazakhstan, with a bit over 1% from other Central Asian countries and only 17 exchange students, including us. The great thing is that there are plenty of courses to choose from. We had 5 courses during the semester. I had Consumer Behavior, Marketing Communications, Advanced Marketing, Leadership & Motivation and Intermediate Russian. The course structure is very similar to ours, with a very big emphasis on case studies, as well as team projects, mid-term and final exams. The only problem is that the average level of students is pretty low, and so are the requirements from lecturers. Even though we had to study very little, I still think I learned quite a lot. Especially interesting was the teamwork experience with Kazakhs, which is very different from what we are used to at SSER...

Free Time

As we didn’t have to study very much, we had quite a lot of free time, which was great after 2 years at SSE Riga. Firstly, me and Peteris slept a lot – we made our schedule such that the earliest lecture

is in the afternoon, so we were sleeping happily until afternoon for 4 months. We also spent a lot of time just hanging out in the dormitory with other exchange students and a few locals, with whom we became close friends. To my surprise I didn’t party or drank very much. We tried 1 liter of vodka for 2 LVL, but it froze to ice in the freezer. The clubs and bars are quite similar to ours, just a bit more expensive – entrance to a club costs not less than 8 LVL! And they always play R’n’B only, which I don’t like too much for dancing. In the weekends we usually tried to visit some sights in Almaty or nearby. Finally, me and Peteris done quite a lot of sports there, as the conditions were pretty good – we played basketball, American football, sometimes ran in the stadium nearby, Peteris also played volleyball. There was also a gym, but it was in a very bad condition.

Overall, it was a great cultural experience. I had an opportunity to learn a lot, especially Russian language, but it was still like a 4 month relaxing holiday. Finally, I am very happy to meet a few wonderful persons who are now close friends of mine, and I hope I will see them someday again. One of them is here with us.

by Marius Raugalas